Langgaard Quartets

The string quartets of Danish music's eccentric outsider Rued Langgaard (1893-1952) are passionate works of the composer's youth, representing both his nostalgically romantic side and his profoundly visionary modernity. For the first time on CD, this recording series presents all 9 quartets in the award-winning young Nightingale String Quartet's distinctly dramatic interpretation based on the revised Rued Langgaard Edition.

The Nightingale String Quartets survey of the complete quartet works of Rued Langgaard (1893-1952) heralded the arrival of a major new ensemble and won the maverick Danish composer thousands of new fans. Poised and restrained one minute, wild and emotional the next, Langgaards string quartets reveal the composers breathtaking originality and individuality, oscillating between luscious Romanticism and outlandish experimentation. They are played with love and understanding on these multiple prize-winning recordings, here gathered together in a single release for the first time.

The Kontra Quartet was absolutely one of the leading string quartets in Europe. The quartet was constantly busy and giving concerts in the USA, in Japan and all over Europe as well as making recordings, playing in TV productions and giving master classes. In 1973 the quartet was formed around the Hungarian violin virtuoso Anton Kontra, whose dynamic artistic personality has been setting new standards for the violin and music in general in Scandinavia since 1956. Along with three of Denmark’s leading string players, Anton Kontra played quartet music for over quarter of a century, and the Kontra Quartet was one of Denmark’s most sought-after ensembles.

"After award-winning Langgaard recordings, the Nightingale String Quartet turns to one of the great unsung quartet cycles of the last century, that of Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996). Volume 1 in this new cycle takes in the composer’s first published quartet, his momentum momentum-fueled Quartet No. 3 and his taut Quartet No. 15 with its pathos-imbued Funeral march. These are fresh new performances that support the idea that the deeper you dig into Holmboe’s music, the more you find."